The End: Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

It’s finished!! My butterfly quilt. Can you believe it, I actually finished a quilt in one month…I mean it is actually quilted and bound. A couple of first’s with this quilt:

  • My first time Free-Motion Quilting a quilt
  • My first time quilting on my new Janome machine
  • First time machine binding a quilt

I loved how it turned out. I was so nervous last night, as I changed the quilting design from a meander (stippling) to a loopy design. I quickly practiced, since this was going to be my first Free-Motion Quilted quilt. I decided I could do it. Here is the big unveiling: Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

I backed the quilt with Les Amis Ripples in Aqua Flannel purchased at Hawthorne Threads. I love the binding with the small grey lines (fabric: Just for fun, tiny stripes, from Marisa and Creative Thursday which can be found at Rock Paper Scissors NJ), from a distance it looks like a light grey solid. I have machine bound smaller items like pot holders and coffee cup sleeves but never a quilt. Why not give it a try. It turned out well.

Kaleidoscope of Butterflies_BackBinding

Lastly, like I mentioned above, I free-motion quilted loops. I think it turned out pretty well. I am happy that I changed from meander to loops. For some reason meander designs always reminds me of either coral or alien fingers :-). I loved the denseness of the quilting as it leaves lots of texture. I loved using my Aurifil Light grey thread – it quilts so nicely.

Kaleidoscope of Butterflies_LoopyQuiltingSo, one last photo of the two big butterflies as I think they are fantastic and a highlight for me.
Kaleidoscope of Butterflies_OverChair

Details

Name: Kaleidoscope of Butterflies
Dimensions: ~ 30″ x 50″ (Crib-sized quilt)
Design: Overall quilt is original design; Butterfly paper piecing patterns are by Juliet @ Tartankiwi
Quilted: FMQ Loopy Design in Aurifil 2600 wt. 50
Fabric for Front: Includes fabrics from Amy Butler, Frances Newcombe, Kaffe Fassett, Carolyn Friedlander, Alison Glass, Tula Pink, Deena Rutter,  Rashida Coleman-Hale, Lotta Jansdotter
Backing: Les Amis Ripples in Aqua Flannel, Patty Sloniger
Binding: Just for fun, tiny stripes, from Marisa and Creative Thursday

Other details can be found in these two posts:

Linking up with ALOYF (see button on the right) as this was my May goal…and I made it (for once :-D…big smile) and Sew Cute Tuesday (see button on right also).

 

 

 

23 thoughts on “The End: Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

  1. katechiconi

    Very, very pretty, a perfect combination of vivid butterflies and a quiet background. Congratulations on the quilting, which has turned out really well.

    Reply
  2. Carol Broughton

    This is a very beautiful quilt! I love the simplicity of the design and the complexity of the butterflies! I also love to use flannel backings, especially for children. I will need to look into those paper pieced butterflies for sure. Thank you for sharing. Bravo on quilting it yourself! I am trying to work up my courage.

    Reply
  3. quiltingjetgirl

    I love how the loopy quilting coordinates with the butterfly theme – their flight is always so free and loosely formed in loops just like your quilting! Congratulations on the wonderful finish!

    Reply
  4. KAY

    I love this quilt, you should be really proud of yourself. The colours and designs work beautifully together. x

    Reply
  5. Ashley

    OBSESSED does not even begin to cover it. I love this quilt. The scrappy background, the binding, the amazing butterflies. The colors you chose are PERFECT! You did such a great job on this quilt, Michelle! I’m so proud of this one for you!!!!

    Reply
  6. clumsykristel

    This is really so very lovely! Also? FMQ! You did great! I love loopy FMQ because even I can manage it (and I hate practising, so you know I don’t do too much of it…) And you can sort of imagine it as flight paths of butterflies! (I’m apparently feeling very enthusiastic today. All these exclamation points!!!!!!)

    Reply
  7. Cara

    Oh, this is such a beautiful quilt! Love the loopy quilting, too! Thanks for the info about how to do the paper pieced butterflies. Might have to add this idea to the big brainstorm list…it’s just so, so pretty!

    Reply
  8. Pingback: Bjorn the Bear | Factotum of Arts

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s